and six months into what will be a long winter of discontent (geez, where’s Richard III when you want him?) we must remain strong in our friendship. There is such a thing as community – and the community of The Pub is part of our individual strength.

So let’s spend this Friday evening together, enjoying the music, the raffle, the drinks, the food – AND the friendship.

One could say, Abbott has had another memorial day. A major conference closed down hours early. Booed at the football. Two more boats, which cannot be turned around, arrive. Add insult to injury, Pyne’s twitter stir.

Just listened to RN, they were talking about Keating, and his great quips. They then summed him up. Every word they attributed to him showed they had never really listened to Julia. Although she isn’t renowned for her wit, (I personally found she had some great quips) they could have been talking about her. I guess they just never listened to her and saw her strength and dignity. Sigh.

I read that earlier, I follow IA, it did give me a bit of hope that all is not lost. Also on RN this morning they were talking about the RET, particularly solar, here and around the world. It was very positive.

Stand by for a lot of welfare-bashing, people on any sort of benefit, even the age pension, are in for a tough time. They will be labelled ‘bludgers’ and ‘leaners’ and worse as Andrews and his henchgoons try to build their case for hacking away at payments.

It’s very obvious that looking after people on welfare is not something this government cares about at all. The government just wants to demonise and punish. Among all the ‘we just want to make things better for you’ bulldust are a lot of hidden nasties. Like taking away existing supplements – they use the telephone allowance as an example – and incorporating them into payments so they can be reduced or taken away completely.

Like a new ‘working age’ payment replacing the existing targeted benefits which will be ‘adjusted’ to suit different circumstances. In other words, everyone except the aged and people with permanent disabilities will get Newstart with a few add-ons. It sounds vastly complicated; the current system is better, works and does not need to be taken away.

Like fiddling with rent assistance, which means you will get less help.

There’s much more, if it interests you then have a look. The ‘Easy English’ version is obviously meant for us dummies already on welfare. We, of course, are too stupid to be able to understand words of more than two syllables and cannot grasp any policy unless it comes with cute illustrations, just like an infant’s school reader.

It’s all very vague, it’s only the interim report. Mr Grecian 2000 wants us to tell him what we think he should do. I’d love to, but I don’t think he will appreciate my input.

OK, I read the IA piece on Gore and Palmer, and I’m afraid I don’t see any hope for the future in there at all. All I see is someone ranting about ‘the media’ not getting it and them getting it wrong themselves.

How many times do I have to say this? The RET HAS NOT BEEN SAVED BY PALMER. He just wants any changes or its repeal to be taken to the 2016 election. There is no guarantee he will achieve that. Palmer has said several times since Wednesday that he just didn’t like Abbott lying about the RET and he wants people to have a chance to vote on it. Palmer does not care if it lives or dies.

Asked by Guardian Australia why he had changed his own election policy, which was to make the renewable energy target voluntary – effectively rendering it meaningless – he said that policy had been “developed further”. The party now wanted the RET to stay unchanged until the next election, due in 2016. “It may well be voluntary after 2016, it may not exist after 2016,” he said.

The PUP senator-elect Dio Wang told Guardian Australia he did not accept the idea of global warming caused by humans. Palmer said Gore had “made his comments independently of me”

I wish everyone would stop giving Palmer the benefit of the doubt, stop seeing him as the great yellow saviour, stop reporting what they wished he had said instead of what he actually said. Palmer is in the game for himself.

Multinational businesses will be able to avoid more in tax than is being saved by many welfare tightening measures, the opposition has claimed.

Labor’s assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh has criticised the Abbott government for rolling back transparency measures and proposing such a light touch on regulation that the revenue base will be eroded.

“Under Labor, we set about closing loopholes that allow multinational companies to pay a lower rate of tax than Australian small businesses, but much of that is now being reversed,” he claimed.

I’d love to know where all these jobs for people allegedly able to work will come from. There are no jobs and every day Abbott’s policies see more Australians join the ranks of the unemployed. It’s hard enough finding a job if you are able bodied and have experience. For someone on DSP it’s pretty much impossible now and will become much harder. Waffle about ‘helping people to find work’ is just a load of pie-in-the-sky rubbish. Andrews knows this, we all know this. Andrews just wants to shove people with disabilities onto Newstart. Cut benefits, make it harder to afford a healthy diet and a safe place to live, make health care more expensive, push up the cost of prescriptions and treatments then sit back and watch people die. I think that’s the plan.

This may give some hope. I am not sure if Abbott can do anything about it either. The article is from the Climate Institute dated Nov 2013 . I have heard no mention of the caps yet in all the argey bargey.

Australia current carbon laws are not just a price on emissions. From 2015, a declining emission limit, or cap, on the emissions of the nation’s largest emitters applies

…….In the event that the caps do not pass through both Houses of Parliament, a default cap is triggered. This default cap was put in place to ensure that political disagreements in Canberra did not see Australia renege on international commitments.

If the repeal of the carbon laws has not succeeded by May 2014, focus on the default cap will increase.

It applies to Australia as well .A couple of years back I saw an article that wrote of the reduction of wages as a share of GDP over the last 25 years or so . A back of the envelope calculation gave me each worker, before tax, would be earning about $14,000 p.a. more if the ratio from the late 1980’s had remained the same. Even a non economist like me saw how much of a boost that amount of extra discretionary spending would men to business , especially small business and hence employment.

A Sunday afternoon amusement…this little moment in time from the continuing adventures of the clientele of The Seacliff Hotel….now lost to oblivium and the demon drink !

Mick…(A character study).

It never ceases to amaze me how some people can compress the whole spectrum of human emotions re. disgust, despair, weariness etc. into a short, sharp comment.
“Jeesus wept!”
Bubblehead passed his hand wearily over his eyes. Mick had just that minute walked through the bar-room doors. It had been nearly one year since Mick had crossed that same threshold, albeit at a difference pace and mood. Absent now was the fearful ; glance quickly over the shoulder and duck! Look so memorable in Bubblehead’s mind. But that one year had done little to obliterate the insidious deed committed by Mick against his (Bubblehead’s) establishment…to wit ; the negotiation to purchase the notorious “weed” in contrast to purchasing AND imbibing (copiously preferred) the amber fluid legally available over the front bar of said establishment….such insults were not to be tolerated!

It had been nearly a year since Mick had been “BANNED FOR LIFE!” (these sentences were occasionally inflicted on regulars for misdemeanors, varying from periods of one, two and three months, to “life” for the more extreme offenders. (Mick’s insult fell solidly into the latter )and now, here he was in all his glory..indeed.. never had the patrons of the front-bar of the Seacliff Hotel seen Mick so well attired! Wolf whistles followed his every step toward where Bubblehead slouched on his bar-stool..both parties steeled themselves for the encounter.

“Mr. Francis…” (Bubblehead’s real name) Mick began….and so ended that penitent time of denial for both parties (Bubblehead knew which side of the bar his money came from!) and Mick was welcomed back into the fold with the stern warning ; “…that if ever again…” so the excuse for another booze-up was offered and accepted by all parties concerned….another Friday night at “The Cliff”.

Actually, Mick featured heavily in the adventures of our little group holed up there in the front bar..trouble and mishaps followed him like the faithful mutt it’s master. Mick fed disaster till it wouldn’t leave his side…but I’ll say this in his defence..: He was never daunted by any set-backs..not even after twenty eight car crashes in two years (“none of ‘em my fault!”) could depression be seen to enter his psyche..his old-man nearly went bananas..but Mick held steady to his merry way.

He was not a big youth..a tad on the shortish side, bandy legged, round, smiling face with a shock of dazzling red hair on a forever bobbing head when he talked..which he did more than listen and the eternal ‘reefer” dangling from his fingers or his lips, sending a curl of smoke up past a wincing eye.

At any rate, “Mick’s Glorious Return” was celebrated in a piece of doggerel and displayed in the men’s toilets for the patron’s pleasure..this verse was written “impromptu” (in the true ancient Greek tradition) by a cagey little character appropriately nick-named ; “spatchcock” …so named because of his rolling into the campfire on the beach while drunk one night….”Leave ‘im there”…old Johnny, the SP. Bookie said in disgust..” He’ll cook up nicely..like a young spatchcock!”….I have a copy of that doggerel on hand and I’ll print it out just so you can “place” the sort of clientele that used to frequent that pub.

“Mick’s Glorious Return”.

Realising that time had come to pass,
(notwithstanding the desire for the odd glass!)
I thought it best to broach “The Bubble”
And take him to task for all me troubles.
So doffing me best suit of clothes,
And emptying the pocket of “bong and hose”.
I dressed myself “to the nines” and
Waited till dark to practice me lines.
“Now, Mr. Francis” I spoke to the mirror bold..
“We’re both grown men..(or so I’m told)
There’s a certain matter I would discuss,
Concerning you an’ me and all that “grass”.
The truth of the matter , matters none,
Though I still maintain I’m the innocent one!
Betrayed by fate and addicted fools
Unable to abide to social rules.
But after it all, here I stand,
One year older..a changed man.
So I come to you on equal terms
To forgive and forget a man whose learned!”
But as I fronted the bar-room doors,
My courage failed me(as never before).
I got my mate to sneak me a glass,
To prime me for this awesome task!
Then through the doors I stolidly bounded..
“Gor Blimey..What’s this!?” Jack Mitchel shouted.
Through laughs and whistles I was derided
But courage steeled me for the task decided.
“Mr. Francis..I spoke with quaking breath,
(like a man speaking to warmed-up death! )
“I come to empty me heart of it’s load,
And, pray, spend me money in your humble abode”
II dropped to my knees under his wrathful glare,
(a balloon, scorched and besieged with anguished hair!)
“I beg you forgive this wayward youth,
That wandered from your “elixir of truth”.
Please, let me enter your bar once more,
An’ let me drink as I did before.
An’ let me prove I’m a changed man,
An’ let me for chrissake have a can!”
“Arise, my son” his voice boomed out.
“Arise and sup with me a stout!
Then join your friends and have good cheer,
An get off the “grass” and onto the beer!”
And that was how one man learned,
That a “banned for life” can be turned.
It takes truth and courage and all that stuff..
And, oh!..I might suggest ; kneepads…(in case the floor is rough!)

I copied this tedious rhyme down to show you the sort of low wit that appealed to the patrons of that infamous hotel…But that memorable date would have soon been forgotten if not for another spectacular entertainment that occurred later that same evening…to wit..: The torching of the notorious “Astoria Apartments” over the road from the Seacliff Hotel….But more of that some other time ..if you desire.

If Abbott can’t get his repeal through the senate by 17 July then it’s not likely it will pass before 1 September. Should that happen things will get very, very messy and very expensive for the government. No wonder Abetz is threatening extra sittings. Even extra sittings have to be voted on and they are likely to be blocked. We are in for senate fun and games. Little carbon price time bombs everywhere that the government didn’t notice, quietly ticking away………

The significance of the September 1 date is that from then, the companies liable under the carbon price have the ability to start selling back their free carbon units to the regulator and the legislation provides that the regulator must buy them. This raises the prospect of windfall profits for these companies (and a budget hole for the government) once the carbon price is actually repealed, particularly if the repeal is still intended to take effect on July 1

Jaycee,
I tried to go past the Astoria apartments that fateful Friday night, but was stopped by rozzers and firies who said no can go. My companion was a fellow scout leader from the Marino Sea Scouts and I was dropping him home as he lived on the Esplanade between the pub and the yacht club.
I had to go down the side street and drop at the stairs that went down to the yacht club car park.
Big night at the Cliff.
BTW did they ever find the cause of the blaze?